Introduction
Web 2.0 in enabling two-way communication and multimedia sharing. This powers the social media platforms that proved to be an integral part of the 21st century communication, social interaction, professional interaction, accessing news and gossip and for entertainment. Ranging from sharing of music, videos, photos, short messages in a one on one or one to many channels. With a level of personalization that enable to have social brand, capital and social footprints.
Search engine tools especially google, and YouTube have become an important and everyday tool for accessing online information. Because of that most social media were optimised for search enabling the search engine to display social media footprint of a given search. With innovative business model from google pay per click came up enabling advertisers only for keywords as well as google enhancing the search algorithm to display search results based on keywords, optimisation and backlinks.
Covid influence necessity is the mother of invention, innovation in remote working, virtual working, with use of digital technology and innovation to create tools with better experience for remote working. Creating new jobs and making online a very important space of learning, interactions and recruiting.
From many the social media platform that were powered by the above trends, LinkedIn stands out as the most used and sorted for, for recruitment since it contains professional digital footprint of over 1.1 billion members and about 16m active users in Africa, 113.5m monthly active users in the USA. One powerful trend of digital is that it can be tracked and measured
Post covid fully embraced the new normal with challenges of going back to the office. Hybrid working became the new normal. These trends have shaped the way recruitment is being done. I personally had to conduct a recruitment exercise virtually, an experience that wasn’t new but had a lot of learning.
We have a phrase the internet never forgets, the personal digital footprints have become increasingly important for job recruitment process
Search Engine results page
Keywords
Links
Of course, not all links are equal. While link volume is the number of links coming to a specific page of your site, link authority looks at the value of the links. Some sites are more trusted than others. Likewise, some sites are more relevant than others to specific terms. The more relevant a site, the more value is transferred by the link. It is more important than ever to avoid your website being associated with spammy links of any kind. ‘Quality’ links are better than a high ‘quantity’ of ‘poor-quality’ links.
Well-known and established news sites, government sites (.gov), and university domains (.ac) are examples of sites from which links can carry more weighting.
Sites with higher authority carry more link weight.
Knowledge panel
Followers
Engagement rate
Trends in topics, themes, subject matter
Analysis
Using myself as a buyer persona, the analysis was to find out my SWOT analysis and competitor analysis as well as influencer analysis to come up with practicle insights of enhancing my profile for job recruitment.
Competitors Analysis
The 10 competitors were mostly drawn from the ecosystem, described in four dimention, job title, area of competancy, sector/ field/domain and experince. I competitors with the following criteria competitors with greater following than mine, greater engagement, greater search engine result page and with a position that I would love to apply for. From the analysis we shared same motivation, vision and goals with most of them having greater achievement and not necessarily experince. We analysed competitors three social media chanel with Linked in being the primary channel. The ratinale for choosing linked in is better described in a study by, positioning it as the most prefered channel for recruiting. First each names were searched on google to compare and contrast the google search engine results page SERP and see the optimization as well as high links. This was also instrumental to assertain the social media platforms they are in and blog or website that they have. We went ahead to do analysis of the social media. It was evident that all profiles reflected the importance and the prioritization of linked in for career development since all of them had strong linked in presence. It was also evident that those that had website or blogs had much greater linked in inlunce and much greater engagement on linkedin underpining the fact that they were deliberate in the efforts of optimizing their profiles. We conducted a keyword research based on the profile to gather insights on the important keywords related to the sector/field or domain as well as
10 competitors
After analysisng the 10 competitors I ranked them with the scores per attribute and narrowed down to two who had a higher score on the keyword, engagement rate, followers, websites and one had a knowledge panel from the google search. They also appeared on more page results on google. I analysed their websites interms of keywords and backlinks. I used google keyword planner, SEMRUSH.
I went ahead to use Resume Worded to analyse their linked in accounts and gathered insights on the keywords as well as backlinks
Keyword analysis
Linkedin Analysis
Website analysis, back link analysis
Linkedin improvement
Influencer Analysis
3 influencers, 1 human resources expert in a development organisation/government agency and two recruitment firm were analysed to gain insights on recruiting trends and created an influencer persona, that captures the motivation, and critical information they look for for recruiting. The other layer was to draw a uniformity in the organisational, need, goals and how they align with the selection criteria. As well as learn the neuances that existas when it comes to talent acquisition, retention and development of this organisation. This was to support the aspect of profile development that would increases the chances of the organisations selecting. Additionally we searched on search engine to gather insights on recruiting trends. We learnt that the trends and insights analysed from the influencers had similarity with the trends from some reputable sites and study. These trends we very key in adding and aligning with the keywords developed from the competitor analysis.
| Deeksha Punia | Director, People Management |
| Hellen Maruti Kong’ong’o, HRBP | Director Human Resource & Talent Management |
| Ruth M. | People Operations | Global Talent Acquisition | Tech Recruitment | Talent Management | Team Leadership | |
Recruitment Trends Analysis
As per Workforce Africa https://talentpeo.com/2025/04/25/hiring-trends-in-africa-2025/?utm_source Workforce Africa on LinkedIn “Job-Hunting Trends in Africa 2025” Actionable insights for hiring leaders:
- Remote/hybrid work is now a staple, especially in tech, marketing, and finance
- Growing use of AI-powered Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)—CVs must be ATS-friendly
- Hiring is increasingly skills-based, over formal degrees, with soft skills (adaptability, emotional intelligence) in high demand
- Green jobs and sustainability roles are emerging strongly due to rising climate and environmental awareness
According to Talent PEO Africa https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/job-hunting-africa-trends-watch-2025-workforce-africake-j5rvf/ Hiring Trends in Africa 2025: Key Insights for Employers Q1 2025 snapshot with granular insights:
- Regional hotspots: South Sudan (+64% employer interest), Nigeria (+47% mid-senior placements), Kenya (+52% cross-border & remote hiring)
- Sector-wise growth: Tech, financial services, energy & renewables, healthcare & NGOs, legal & compliance
- Highlights challenges of multi-country hiring and the utility of EOR (Employer of Record) solutions for compliant hiring across African markets
3 Social media the three. From the initial assesment from the competitor analysis we established an order of priority and importance of the social media that recruitors used and compeitors use to build their profile for recruitment. Linkedin came in first which reflect the study by which gives evidence on why its important. This was followed by X (formally twitter) with strong bias on following current news and redirecting audinces to main articles. Virality was also a factor that supportet the x use. It was important to note a key strategy of using the soacila media and blog was the idea of growing links using sharable content. The last social media to add was intagram since majority of the young population do share graphical and video content with ease and has a higher on the go content cosumption with very few text.
From the analysis we adopted an important structure from Digital and Social Media Marketing : A Results-Driven Approach The three key sub-strategy of Digital marketing Channels, content and data. Our profile mimicked the buyer persona to be reached by the recruiting agency or head hunting organisation or online recruiting agency and was enhanced by the competitor analysis, the ten competitors represented the those who would compete for the same buyers (jobs) as us and the influencers represented a buyer persona (recruiters and HR in organisations that will offer us the job) Key question on Buyer persona were what channels to the use, what do they consider what recruiting. What content keywords are they drawn to when head hunting. Other than the qualifications what other aspect do they consider. Given the reliant on soacila media platform for recruiting the case by…. what trends and data do the follow and unpack.
The indepth analysis pointed us to one of the most optimised competitor. The competitor validated the fact that his optimization was not an acciednt but a deliberate effort to grow their findability, it validated the reason of them having a website. and to solidfy their reputation as a voice of reason and opinion moulder in the field. We went ahead a did an indepth analysis of the website to understand the optimization for findability as well as strengthening their online brand.
| Profile Element | Enos Masinde Weswa | Dr. Tonny Omwansa | Amine IDRISS A. Karama |
| Positioning | Startup Ecosystem Builder & Connector | Innovation Policy Leader & Academic | Continental Infrastructure & Integration Strategist |
| Strength | Hands-on Startup Mentorship & Design Thinking | Policy Influence & Innovation Governance | High-Level Program Execution & Partnerships |
| Digital Presence Strength | Active LinkedIn Profile | Strong Institutional Profile | Profile on LinkedIn, but weak personal brand content |
| Content Gaps | Lacks academic publications & a personal blog | Needs more personal thought leadership content | Needs integration between his blog and professional platforms |
| Engagement Frequency (Social Media) | Medium (ecosystem events & updates) | Low to Medium (policy events, few posts) | Low (institutional focus, minimal personal interaction) |
| Influence Level | National (Kenya-focused) | National & Regional (East Africa) | Continental (Africa-wide policy influence) |
| Competitor Name | Strengths | Weaknesses | Opportunities | Threats |
| Enos Masinde Weswa | – Hands-on startup mentorship & design thinking expertise- Strong ecosystem connector- Active LinkedIn presence- Multi-sector experience (Tech, Creative, Academia) | – Limited academic publications- Lacks a personal blog/website for thought leadership- Lesser visibility in policy-making circles | – Develop a personal branded blog focusing on startup scaling stories- Increase frequency of thought leadership posts (LinkedIn Articles, Medium)- Collaborate with influencers to amplify reach | – Highly visible ecosystem leaders overshadowing in policy influence- Limited visibility in regional/global platforms |
| Dr. Tonny K. Omwansa | – Key policy influencer & innovation governance expert- Founder of Kenya Innovation Week & CEIL Summit- Published academic researcher- Global institutional networks (MIT, Mastercard) | – Limited personal content (blogs, vlogs)- Engagement frequency on social platforms is low- Niche focus on policy & academia | – Amplify personal brand through regular LinkedIn thought pieces- Launch a personal website/blog narrating policy impact stories- Engage more in startup ecosystem conversations | – Risk of being viewed as bureaucratic- Competitors with stronger grassroots & digital presence may outpace public engagement |
| Amine IDRISS A. Karama | – Pan-African policy & infrastructure leader- Multi-lingual (English, French, Arabic)- Deep experience in continental programs (PIDA, AfCFTA)- Publications & thought pieces on development economics | – Low digital personal brand visibility- Sparse engagement on LinkedIn & blog not fully utilized- Less presence in startup incubation narratives | – Build a robust thought leadership presence via LinkedIn articles in multiple languages- Leverage AUDA-NEPAD platform to create personal “insider series” blog- Position as Africa’s voice on sustainable infrastructure financing | – Could be perceived as “too institutional”- Less appeal to younger digital-native startup communities without storytelling personalization |
Recruitment trends
Digital and Social Media Marketing: A Results-Driven Approach, edited by Aleksej Heinze, et al., Taylor & Francis Group, 2016
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Enos Weswa 
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